India - Superpower retreat: Bowing to Nuclear blackmail

TImes of India ^ | June 4,2002 | K SUBRAHMANYAM

[swarthyguy]

That's because being a democracy it didn't need a revolution like a dictatorship and merely changed parties.

[cicero's_son]

Nuclear blackmail is now enshrined as a tool of foreign policy

It has been for quite some time, now. You don't think that Pakistan invented this particular diplomatic tool, do you?

[gcruse]

 
Cold War? The world has undergone some
changes since, in case you hadn't noticed.

Yeah, Russia changed.  India didn't.
Where were they when we needed them?

[DeaconBenjamin]

OK, I understand what nuclear blackmail means. What were we blackmailed out of? What did the bad guys win -- because they have nukes -- that they otherwise would not have won?

[swarthyguy]

The US needed India in the coldwar? It was the other way around and india ended up on the wrong side.

[gcruse]

 
That's because being a democracy it didn't need a
revolution like a dictatorship and merely changed parties.

Where was India when we needed them?  Alongside
our enemies.  We owe them nothing.

[swarthyguy]

More a question of it happening here in the (near) future. But so far, it has stopped any retaliation by india for incessant and brutal terror attacks for the past 6 months.

[Cicero]

India has thumbed its nose at the United States for the past fifty years, and seldom missed an opportunity to insult us or stir up the third world against us. Do you remember the insufferable conduct of Jawaharal Nehru?

Nevertheless, the United States has moved further from Pakistan and closer to India. We have done so mainly because we see that as being in our national security interests.

India is NOT a formal ally of the United States. We have no mutual defense treaties with India. We certainly have no obligation to get involved in a nuclear war on the subcontinent UNLESS we decide it is in our national interest to do so.

[gcruse]

The US needed India in the coldwar? It was the
other way around and india ended up on the wrong side.

And how did they end up on the wrong side?

[swarthyguy]

Not a question of owing india anything; and there's no call by india for the US to get involved in the war. Just allow the retaliation for terror attacks.

And my point is, these are the same jihadis and same ideology that nailed the US on 9/11. It is the US national interest

[mikenola]

On the former day, the sole superpower virtually yielded to nuclear blackmail by Pakistan (conveyed by its ambassador to the UN). Instead of taking Pakistan to task as was done in 1990, the US chose to keep silent on the issue. Worse, the US administration obliged Pakistan by recalling its staff from the subcontinent

When we help other countries, we're allies and good "citizens of the World Community ®"

When we help ourselves , we're "imperialists" and the world's "policeman"

Being too inept/lazy to solve their own problems, or develop legitimate assets of statecraft, the 3rd world (with the assistance of western "human-rights" organizations) has done a remarkable job of spinning the issues in their favor.

[DeaconBenjamin]

I'm not going to beat a dead horse. But I will try one last time.

This article states that the US has been blackmailed by Pakistan. You state that you agree with this article. I still don't know what Pakistan is supposed to have received. What was the US supposed to have been blackmailed into doing or not doing?

[mikeIII]

Not sure if your point is that India had not changed or that they weren't there "when we needed them".

With collapse of the Soviet Union, the cold war alliances inevitably changed.

There was never a time for us to need them of any consequence when "they weren't there", that we missed it. At least, not enough to make a difference, or to warrant averting a nuclear war now.

[Love of Country]

You actually believe this tripe? India will dust the Paki's broom!

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

Death, where is they sting? How much sharper than the serpent's tooth is it to have a thankless Musharraf!

That's what I like about the Times of India, its unabashed Woodhousian anglomania. Regardless of how this latest conflict turns out K SUBRAHMANYAM has already gone nuclear with every convent school cliché smartly marshalled and deployed like pieces on a chessboard.

[GOP_1900AD]

Not quite. The first truly Rightist government since 1947 is in power. For the first time since the Raj, India is looking increasingly to nations such as the US, Israel, and Italy for weapons and support. The ball is in the West's court vis a vis India. Continue to coddle two-faced ChiCOM bootlicker Musharraf and lose what might be a unique opportunity to sway India away from any number of countries who are anti-US and anti-Western. Embrace India now and make one of the sorts of bold geopolitical moves that could be an huge factor in how we are positioned for the next ("There is will always be a next war." R. Cheney, 1990) great powers conflict. This is on par with the embrace by the US of the UK at the turn of the 20th century.

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

Unfortuately, the Bush Administration has caved into radical Islam throughout the world, from Arafat to Abdullah to Musharaf. The so-called "war on terrorism" has turned into a farce.

A fart.

[swarthyguy]

thanks to General Musharraf’s brilliant strategy of claiming to be an ally of the US, while in practice supporting and sustaining the operation of the terrorist groups.

Using the fear of his being overthrown and the nukes falling into islamists hands, he has stymied the US by saying he's cooperating while providing a hideaway for the jihadis. He claims he doesn't know where they are. Maybe he personally doesn't, but his army certainly does and he commands the army. Forestalling action by the US against alqaeda in Pakistan itself is the first consequence.

[swarthyguy]

A nit -- i think you mean Wodehouse as in P.G.

[gcruse]

 a unique opportunity to sway India away from any
number of countries who are anti-US and anti-Western.

If they can't figure it out for themselves, too bad for them.
And the fact the ball is 'in the West's court' simply because
there no longer is a USSR says nothing in India's favor
either.  I'll prefer to remember my history, and know
who our friends are when the chips are down.